The One Health framework recognises that human, animal, and ecosystem health are interconnected, with implications for how we address animal welfare as part of broader health systems.
Animals in poor welfare conditions including factory farms and wildlife markets are more susceptible to disease and more likely to serve as reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens. Crowded, stressed animals shed higher pathogen loads increasing transmission risk. Wildlife welfare in trade situations directly affects pandemic emergence risk. Antibiotic use in farm animals with poor welfare drives resistance that threatens human medicine. Improving animal welfare is therefore not only morally important for animals themselves but provides co-benefits for human health and ecosystem sustainability that strengthen the case for welfare investment.